2007 CAF Champions League final

2007 CAF Champions League Final

Cairo International Stadium hosted the podium where Étoile du Sahel lifted the trophy
Event	2007 CAF Champions League
Étoile du Sahel Al-Ahly 3 1
First leg
Étoile du Sahel Al-Ahly 0 0
Date	27 October 2007
Venue	Stade Olympique de Sousse, Sousse
Referee	Raphaël Evehe Divine (Cameroon)
Attendance	25,000
Second Leg
Al-Ahly Étoile du Sahel 1 3
Date	9 November 2007
Venue	Cairo International Stadium, Cairo
Referee	Abderrahim El Arjoun (Morocco)
Attendance	74,000
← 2006 2008 →

The 2007 CAF Champions League Final was the final of the 2007 CAF Champions League, the 43rd edition of Africa's premier club football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), and the 11th edition under the current CAF Champions League format.

The final was played between Étoile du Sahel from Tunisia and Al-Ahly from Egypt. After a goal-less first leg, EsS Sahel won the second leg 3–1 in Cairo to win their first African title . As a result, ES Sahel qualified to enter the quarterfinals of the 2007 FIFA Club World Cup as the CAF representative, as well as participate in the 2008 CAF Super Cup against the winner of the 2007 CAF Confederation Cup.

Qualified teams[edit]

In the following table, finals until 1996 were in the African Cup of Champions Club era, since 1997 were in the CAF Champions League era.

Team	Region	Previous finals appearances (bold indicates winners)
Étoile du Sahel	UNAF (North Africa)	2004, 2005
Al Ahly	UNAF (North Africa)	1982, 1983, 1987, 2001, 2005, 2006

Background[edit]

Both teams had met in the same round in 2005 when the Egyptian team won (3-0) in Cairo. Al-Ahly were the defending champions, and also the most successful club in the African Champions Cup/CAF Champions League with Zamalek, reaching a total of six finals, winning five (1982, 1987, 2001, 2005, 2006) and losing one (1983). Étoile du Sahel reached the final twice but they lost against Enyimba in 2004 and against Al Ahly in 2005. Both teams qualified as winners of their groups.

Both teams qualified for the semifinals on the second-last matchday. In the semifinals Étoile du Sahel defeated the Sudanese side Al Hilal 3–2 on aggregate, losing the first leg in Omdurman (1-2), with the second leg ending in a win (3-1). Al Ahly faced Al Iittihad from Libya and draw the first leg (0-0) away from home. In need of a win in the second leg, Al Ahly were victorious 1–0 and reached the final to face Étoile du Sahel again after 2 years.

Venues[edit]

Stade Olympique de Sousse[edit]

Stade olympique de Sousse is a multi-purpose stadium in Sousse, Tunisia. It is used by the football team Étoile du Sahel, and was used for the 2004 African Cup of Nations. The stadium holds 28,000 people. It hosts within it the meetings played by the football team of the city: Étoile sportive du Sahel (ESS).

For many decades, Sousse footballers knew only the clay surfaces and knew the turf surfaces only when the stadium was inaugurated with an initial capacity of 10,000 places. It passes over the years to 15,000 seats and is then expanded again on the occasion of the 1994 African Cup of Nations with 6,000 additional seats to reach a capacity of 21,000 seats; A luminous panel is installed at the same time. The last expansion was carried out in 1999 to bring the capacity of the stadium to 28,000 seats for the 2001 Mediterranean Games, a reorganization of the gallery of honor was carried out, from a capacity of 70 to 217 places.

It hosted 1977 FIFA World Youth Championship, 1994 African Cup of Nations, 2001 Mediterranean Games and 2004 African Cup of Nations.

Cairo International Stadium[edit]

Cairo International Stadium, formerly known as Nasser Stadium, is an Olympic-standard, multi-use stadium with an all-seated capacity of 75,000.^[1] The architect of the stadium is the German Werner March, who had built from 1934 to 1936 the Olympic Stadium in Berlin. Before becoming an all seater stadium, it had the ability to hold over 100,000 spectators, reaching a record of 120,000. It is the foremost Olympic-standard facility befitting the role of Cairo, Egypt as the center of events in the region. It is also the 69th largest stadium in the world. Located in Nasr City; a suburb north east of Cairo, it was completed in 1960, and was inaugurated by President Gamal Abd El Nasser on 23 July that year, the eighth anniversary of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. Zamalek SC currently use the Petro Sport Stadium for most of their home games and Al Ahly use Al Salam Stadium for most of their home games.

The Stadium is located about 10 km west of Cairo International Airport and about 10 km^[2] (30 min) from downtown Cairo.

In 2005, in preparation for the 2006 African Cup of Nations it underwent a major renovation, and was brought up to 21st century world standard along with all its multi-game Olympic facilities which did not enable the same two teams to play the 2005 final on this stadium.

Road to final[edit]

Étoile du Sahel				Round	Al-Ahly
Opponent	Agg.	1st leg	2nd leg	Qualifying rounds	Opponent	Agg.	1st leg	2nd leg
Fello Star	5–1	1–0 (A)	4–1 (H)	First round	Highlanders	2–0	0–0 (A)	2–0 (H)
Maranatha	3–0	0–0 (A)	3–0 (H)	Second round	Mamelodi Sundowns	4–2	2–2 (A)	2–0 (H)
Opponent	Result			Group stage	Opponent	Result
FAR Rabat	1–0 (A)			Matchday 1	Al-Hilal	2–0 (H)
Al-Ittihad	0–0 (H)			Matchday 2	ASEC Mimosas	1–0 (A)
JS Kabylie	3–0 (H)			Matchday 3	Espérance de Tunis	3–0 (H)
JS Kabylie	2–0 (A)			Matchday 4	Espérance de Tunis	0–1 (A)
FAR Rabat	0–0 (H)			Matchday 5	Al-Hilal	0–3 (A)
Al-Ittihad	0–2 (A)			Matchday 6	ASEC Mimosas	2–0 (H)
Group A Winner Pos Team v t e Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification 1 Étoile du Sahel 6 3 2 1 6 2 +4 8 Advance to knockout stage 2 Al-Ittihad 6 3 1 2 6 4 +2 7 3 JS Kabylie 6 2 1 3 6 8 −2 5 4 FAR Rabat 6 1 2 3 2 6 −4 4 Source: CAF Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers				Final standings	Group B Winner Pos Team v t e Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification 1 Al Ahly SC 6 4 0 2 8 4 +4 8 Advance to knockout stage 2 Al-Hilal 6 3 1 2 8 5 +3 7 3 ASEC Mimosas 6 2 1 3 4 5 −1 5 4 Espérance de Tunis 6 1 2 3 2 8 −6 4 Source: CAF Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
Opponent	Agg.	1st leg	2nd leg	Knock-out stage	Opponent	Agg.	1st leg	2nd leg
Al Hilal	4–3	1–2 (A)	3–1 (H)	Semifinals	Al Ittihad	1–0	0–0 (A)	1–0 (H)

Format[edit]

The final was decided over two legs, with aggregate goals used to determine the winner. If the sides were level on aggregate after the second leg, the away goals rule would have been applied, and if still level, the tie would have proceeded directly to a penalty shootout (no extra time is played).^[3]

Matches[edit]

First leg[edit]

27 October 2007

18:00 GMT

Étoile du Sahel	0–0	Al-Ahly
	Report

Stade Olympique, Sousse

Attendance: 25,000

Referee: Evehe Divine (Cameroon)

ES Sahel

Al Ahly

ES Sahel: GK 1 Aymen Mathlouthi DF 13 Saber Ben Frej  30' DF 4 Radhouene Felhi DF 6 Saïf Ghezal  72' DF 10 Mehdi Meriah  79' MF 19 Mohamed Ali Nafkha MF 24 Moussa Narry MF 25 Mouritala Ogunbiyi  84' MF 5 Mejdi Traoui  66' MF 14 Gilson Silva FW 21 Amine Chermiti  24' Substitutes: FW 16 Sadat Bukari  66' DF 4 Hatem Bejaoui  84' Manager: Bertrand Marchand

Al Ahly: GK 1 Essam El Hadary DF 4 Emad El-Nahhas DF 26 Wael Gomaa DF 7 Shady Mohamed DF 2 Islam El-Shater  90' DF 25 Hossam Ashour MF 17 Anis Boujelbene MF 5 Ahmad El-Sayed  12' MF 8 Mohamed Barakat  18' MF 22 Mohamed Aboutrika  87' FW 23 Flávio  82'  84' Substitutes: MF 9 Emad Meteb  84' FW 6 Ahmed Sedik  87' MF 18 Osama Hosny  90' Manager: Manuel José

Second leg[edit]

9 November 2007

17:30 GMT

Al Ahly	1–3	Étoile du Sahel
El-Nahhas 48'	Report	Gharbi 44' Chermiti 90+3' Narry 90+5'

Cairo International Stadium, Cairo

Attendance: 74,000

Referee: Abderrahim El Arjoun (Morocco)

Al Ahly

ES Sahel

Al Ahly: GK 1 Essam El Hadary DF 4 Emad El-Nahhas  61' DF 7 Shady Mohamed MF 5 Ahmad El-Sayed DF 2 Islam El-Shater  46' DF 12 Gilberto  75' DF 25 Hossam Ashour MF 17 Anis Boujelbene  66' MF 22 Mohamed Aboutrika MF 9 Emad Meteb FW 23 Flávio Substitutes: MF 9 Hassan Mostafa  46' FW 6 Mohamed Sedik  66' MF 18 Ahmed Qenawi  75' Manager: Manuel José

ES Sahel: GK 1 Aymen Mathlouthi DF 13 Saber Ben Frej DF 4 Radhouene Felhi DF 5 Ammar Jemal DF 6 Hatem Bejaoui MF 24 Moussa Narry DF 19 Mohamed Ali Nafkha MF 25 Mouritala Ogunbiyi  84' MF 10 Afouène Gharbi  66' MF 7 Gilson Silva  87' FW 27 Amine Chermiti Substitutes: FW 18 Mejdi Traoui  66' MF 26 Bassem Ben Nasser  84' MF 15 Mahmoud Khemiri  87' Manager: Bertrand Marchand

Notes and references[edit]

External links[edit]

• 2007 CAF Champions League - cafonline.com